278 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ April 6, 187S. 



should Bhe prove restleos and diaoontented diaoharge her at 

 once. The nest should bo kept closed at all times, except when 

 the hens are off for refreihment and exercise, for which once 

 a-day ought to suffice. This method of sitting hens admits of 

 keeping such hens only as are quiet in disposition and gentle 

 enough to not object very seriously to boiug handled when 

 broody. Brahmas and Cochins possess these qualifications in a 

 high degree. When the apartment becomes well tenanted the 

 constant presence of the keeper will be needed for an hour or 

 two every morning to let the hens off the nest and make sure 

 that they get back again all right. "When a sitting hen that has 

 been removed from the neat in which she laid is given her 

 liberty she will almost surely return to that nest, and in this 

 instinct of the hen lies the chief difficulty in the way of hatch- 

 ing-out chickens in large numbers. These hens will enter the 

 wrong nest; two of them will get on one nest and leave another 

 bare, fights will be of frequent occurrence, and a sitting hen is 

 (in Hibernian parlance) a "wicked" fighter; the result will be 

 a number of broken eggg. When eggs get broken in the nest 

 the remaining ones should be washed clean in lukewarm water, 

 Bince the substance of the broken eggs becoming pasted over the 

 Bhells renders them impervioua to the change of air necessary 

 for the embryos. When the atmosphere is very dry the moisture 

 evaporates through the shell, and the egga should be moistened 

 if it occurs during the latter half of their period of incubation. 

 This is easily done by dipping the baud in lukewarm water and 

 pushing it under the hen, repeating three or four times. After 

 the eggs have been sat on one week they should be examined, 

 aad the unfertile ones removed and fed to newly-hatched chicks. 

 Eggs with clear white shells are transparent enough to be tested 

 when sat on four days, or even three; but the dark-coloured 

 eggs of the Asiatics are so opaque that the fertile ones cannot 

 certainly be distinguished in less than a week. An instrument 

 for testing eggs is readily made by rolling up a thick sheet of 

 paper or several sheets laid together, making a tube 10 or 

 12 inches long and 1} inch in diameter. To test the eggs place 

 the eye at one end of this tube and the egg at the other, direct- 

 ing the sight toward a window or open door. If the egg is 

 fertile the observer will see a dark spot the size of a pea, with 

 red strings resembling magnified spider's legs ramifying there- 

 from. Oftentimes when the shells are thick and comparatively 

 opaque these will not be seen. In that case observe the air 

 chamber in the large end of the egg. If it is large and its 

 borders are well defined, and at the same time the remainder of 

 the egg is of a homogeneously reddish hue, the egg is fertile. 

 Provided several hens are set simultaneously after rejecting the 

 unfertile eggs, the sitting of one hen may be distributed among 

 the others, and she may be provided with a fresh sitting. Some 

 of the chicks are oftentimes slow in getting out of tbe shells, 

 and the hens become hungry and restless and move about on the 

 nest, frequently mashing a chick or two, or breaking the shells 

 in upon those that have not yet hatched. These losses may 

 usually be prevented by taking the hen off the nest, and with 

 her a handful of the young chicks, and giving her food and a 

 chance to stretch and take a little exercise. Thereafter she wUl 

 return to the nest, call the chicks under her, and sit contentedly 

 another day. A dusting place should be provided for the hens 

 in front of the window, and the use of this when a sprinkling 

 of wood-ashes or sulphur ia added to it and also to the nests will 

 keep the hens free from vermin. A great benefit will be derived 

 therefrom in the quiet and contented deportment of the hens 

 upon the eggs, as well as in their health and that of the young 

 chicks. A stove will be required to complete the furniture of 

 this apartment. When the temperature is likely to fall to the 

 freezing point, keep fire enough to maintain a temperature of 

 about 50° Fahr. 



Case of Chicks.— An apartment similar to the one already 

 described will be needed for the accommodation of the young 

 chicks ; for if they are kept in the same apartment with the 

 Bitting hens, the latter become uneasy, and make efforts to 

 obtain possession of other hens' chicks. Coops that can be 

 readUy carried in and out of this apartment should be used. 

 They should be as light as possible, and have floors so that the 

 hen and chicks can be transported in them. On all fine days— 

 in fact, on all — except they are very cold or stormy, the coops 

 should stand outside, in a situation where the chicks can bask 

 in the sun without feeling too much wind. If the coops are 

 well sheltered, and are covered at night, it would not be neces- 

 Bary to put them inside at all during moderate weather. But 

 during storms and very cold weather it ia imperatively neces- 

 sary that they be taken inside ; a fire to take the chill off the 

 air and keep the apartment dry will be found wonderfully con- 

 ducive to their health. And besides, a greater amount of fresh 

 air can be given them in consequence, which they very much 

 need when they are compelled to remain long in their apart- 

 ment. At about sis weeks of age the chicks are sufficiently 

 leathered to do without all this care. In the matter of feed, 

 a few meals of boiled egga to begin with will giva them a good 

 start. Warm feed and drink are better for them than cold at 

 this season; aid both should be given often— not less than eight 



times a-day, beginning as early in the morning as they can Bee 

 to eat, and ending at night under the same conditions. What- 

 ever variety of ground feed is given it should be fresh ground 

 and from sound grain. That there is a great amount of labour 

 and expense attached to all this I am well aware ; but the cost 

 of fuel during a few cold spells, roughly finishing the interior 

 of the rooms required, and the extra amount of care demanded 

 by the chicks, all of which constitute the difference in cost be- 

 tween early and late chicks — the care of the sitting hens, when 

 many chicks are reared, being just as necessary late in the season 

 — will be counterbalanced many times over in the difference of 

 prices for which they can be sold. — [New York Tribune.) 



SITTING HENS. 



EvEKVONE who has kept the Asiatics has been troubled, no 

 doubt, by their sitting propensities. Usually there is no con- 

 venient coop to confine them in, and after they have been on the 

 nest a day or two their owner, in sheer desperation, shuts them 

 in the first barrel or box he comes across. The hen generally 

 manages to get out in a couple of days, and the consequence ia 

 she is strengthened in her stubborn desire to sit. If her owner 

 succeeds in breaking her up in two weeks he congratulates him- 

 self upon his good luck. If the hen ia taken off the nest im- 

 mediately when she first commences to sit there will be no 

 trouble in breaking her up. Very soon we will begin to be 

 troubled with sitting hens again, and the winter is the best 

 time to fix a coop to shut the sitters in. 



I have had in use for two years a coop for breaking-up sitters, 

 and I can consistently say it is the best thing for the purpose I 

 have ever seen. The coop is .5 feet long and 2 feet wide ; height 

 2 feet. The floor is made of inch square pieces placed 1 and 

 IJ inch apart. The front pirt of the coop is of lath. The hen 

 cannot very well sit on the slatted floor, and she will generally 

 give up in disgust, and in a day or two will be willing to go back 

 to her old quarters and do her duty. They do not like the 

 slatted floor — it does not agree with them, and herein lies its 

 efficiency. — D. — (American Fanciers' Journal.) 



ZEBRA FINCHES. 



I HAVE at present a pair of these Finches with a nestful of 

 young birds. This is the second nest they have had this year, 

 the first set of eggs, ten in number, being all unfertile ; but 

 these nestlings all seem to be going on well. 



1 provided the old birds with pampas grass to make their nest 

 with, of wbioh they used a large quantity. The inside of the 

 cage is lined with virgin cork fitted-up in a rustic fashion. I 

 feed them entirely on millet seed and hard-boiled egg. They 

 are a most interesting and affectionate little couple, taking it by 

 turns to sit. — B. Dkummond, Bath Nursery. 



THE WONDERS OF A BEE HIVE.— No. 7. 



The courage of bees, and their consciousness or knowledge of 

 possessing destructive powers, are both alike wonderful. I have 

 often admired the instinctive craft and cunning of wild ducks 

 when they are disturbed in their nests. On such occasions they 

 noiselessly roll themselves off their eggs, and appear as if they 

 are wounded and quite unable to fly. On being pursued they 

 flutter and roll over and over again till they succeed in tempting 

 their pursuers or disturbers from the neighbourhood of their 

 nests, and then take wing to the astoniahment of those who run 

 to catch them. Bees in defending their hives courageously face 

 every danger and every foe ; they will attack a lion as readily 

 as a fly. In defence they are dauntless, and never seek the 

 protection of barricades of any kind. In this work they appear 

 to despise craft and stratagem. They neither quake nor quail 

 before man or beast. No amount of paiu or suffering will cause 

 them to flinch. Many times have I seen bees rise to attack me 

 after having received several knock-down blows from my open 

 hand. Bees may be killed or disabled and thus conquered, not 

 otherwise. 



They are furnished with wonderful weapons of defence. They 

 have spears of the finest, polish and sharpest points ever seen by 

 human eyes. Their spears are connected with bags of venom, 

 and apparatuses which act and move after being separated from 

 the bodies of beea. Some six and thirty years ago I went one 

 evening to the Polytechnic Institution in London, where there 

 was amongst other things a microscopic exhibition. A bee's 

 sting and a No. G needle used by ladies in sewing were magnified 

 together by way of contrast. The needle appeared like a great, 

 blunt, rough bar of iron fresh from the blacksmith's forge and 

 hammer ; and the sting appeared to be (though magnified thirty 

 thousand times) without flaw or indentation, and possessing a 

 polish and point of exquisite beauty and fioenesa. 



The stings and venom-bags of bees are of courae connected ; 

 and it has often been said, and believed, that the heels or bases 

 of the stings rest on tbe bags, and that when the points of the 

 stings are being inserted the pressure causes the venom to flow 



